Finishing the month (May 2013) strong

Last day of the month. What's the verdict?

Well, it finished with a good week for outside activities.

• Monday, May 27: My annual Memorial Day weekend bike loop from Bedford through New Boston and Goffstown. Little more than two hours. Nice to finally have dry weather and sunshine after five days of rain.

• Wednesday, May 29: Took dogs for hour-long run on humid night. Felt strong all the way along five-mile loop until turning ankle right at the very end. No serious damage, though.

• Friday, May 31: Up early and biked to Nashua to pick up my mother's mail, then back home on the other side of the Merrimack River. Six towns, about 35 miles, two hours and 17 minutes.

One note is that Thursday night I stayed late at work to try to get things done prior to a weekend visit to Chicago to see one nephew receive Confirmation and another graduate from high school. By late, I mean until after midnight, and then was up for another hour at home before finally getting into bed.

And then I tried rising at 5 a.m. to hop on the bike for a lengthy ride. Uck! Maybe I used to be able to pull that off, but not anymore. Nothing complicated about it. I need sleep, or I feel like a piece of garbage and have no fun. 

• Looking ahead: The trick will be to keep up this pace through June and the rest of the summer, making the most of the long days that will be with us from now until mid-August.

That means it's prime mountain-climbing time, and also prime lake swimming time. And that means it's time to make progress on climbing all 48 of New Hampshire's 4,000-foot peaks, and to try to get into the water and work up to doing better at a triathalon this season.

There's one coming up in June, right in my own backyard. The Greater Nashua Triathalon, parts of which cover the exact same roads I just biked this morning to my mother's house. Maybe, maybe not. Not sure if I'll be up to a third-mile swim in just three weeks.

Still, need to stay focused on keeping the momentum going, with larger or longer events every other day or so.

Updating things for September: Running, biking, trying to stay sane

I have a new motivation for pursuing fitness activities. With my mother in and out of the hospital, and plenty of other uncertainties, lately it's the one thing that keeps me sane. Really. I find that nothing helps put everything in perspective like a long run or a very long bike ride. For a day or two afterwards, I have unlimited patience. Nothing seems to get to me.

We all respond to stress in various ways. I have a tendency toward compulsive eating when under stress, a very unfortunate habit. I recall that during the first Gulf War, White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater put on a lot of weight, in part because of the stress. I'm not fighting the Gulf War, but the personal stakes are just as high, and I can't let bad habits take over.

So, into September we go, with me trying to stay active outdoors while the days are still long enough and before the weather turns. And the first thing to point out is that what's good for me is good for our three dogs. They all need exercise, and that alone ought to be enough to keep me busy. I run with them, but could do it more regularly. And so I'll try.

The bike is turning into the big story of 2012. I've already biked the Kanc, done an 88-mile trek to Harrisville, and rode to the seacoast for fried clams. The one big one left for this season, I think, is a White Mountains loop. I was going to do it today (Sunday, Sept. 9) but I've gotten a late start and too much to do at home base. So today it's running with dogs and maybe a two-hour New Boston bike loop to finish out the day. I'll hope ffor

Running isn't being forgotten, either, although I've missed a few town races in the past month and total has been stagnant since the triathlon in Surry, N.H., and that was back in July, f'chrissakes. Well, a clutch of a half-dozen towns beckon for this fall, including a half-marathon in Manchester, N.H., so that's something to look forward to.

And I've made progress on the "running in 50 states" project as well. On Thursday, Sept. 6, I squeezed in a 10K run through the prairie suburbs of Denver during a whirlwind one-day visit, thus adding Colorado to the list. And later this month, I could potentially pick up two more during a visit to Missouri/Kansas/Arkansas/Oklahoma. I already have Kansas, so realistically it's Missouri and then Arkansas.

Looking ahead to colder weather, I still have a gym membership at Planet Fitness on Manchester's West Side, and I also need to find a place to start swimming regularly so I can seriously participate in more triathlons next year. We'll see. In the meantime, I do need to keep activity to keep my sanity.